The Internet continues to grow in popularity and is becoming an integral part of every day life as more and more people and businesses use it for various reasons. For example, businesses use the Internet to promote their products and services with hopes that consumers will use and purchase them. Thus, without question, many businesses believe that presence on the Internet is an important and necessary component for staying competitive in today's marketplace.
There are currently thousands of businesses that advertise, promote, and sell their products/services through the Internet. These businesses generally maintain and manage their own web sites and pages to advertise and sell their products and services. In other instances, businesses can advertise at other businesses' web sites and pages via banners, links, and the like.
It is anticipated that in the near future, there will be billions of Internet users worldwide. Many of these users will use the Internet to shop for products and services because it saves them time and money and provides convenience by allowing them to shop at home. Internet users can compare prices, products, and services by visiting one web page to another in a matter of seconds, thus enriching their shopping experience.
Many users also use the Internet to obtain information about anything imaginable since information on the Internet is generally free. However, in many instances, users have to search for hours and hours for particular information because of the vast amount of information on the Internet. In general, information on the Internet is not well organized, and there exists no comprehensive system for providing an efficient manner of searching for particular information. As a result, users may become easily frustrated and expend a considerable amount of time on the Internet without finding the desired information.
In today's highly competitive global marketplace, there is a great need for businesses to provide the most optimal service to their customers. In particular, Internet users are constantly seeking products and services that manage and enrich their lives. Currently, there are a number of segregated businesses on the Internet that offer specialized life management and enrichment products and services. For example, there are buying services such as e-retailers www.autobytel.com (cars) and www.barnesandnoble.com (book sales), auction and discount services such as www.ebay.com (auctioning products) and www.priceline.com (reverse auctioning airline tickets), personal information management services (calendar and events) such as www.when.com and www.jump.com, search engines such as www.4anything.com, and the like (all web sites above believed to be a registered trademarks). Recently, the rapid expansion of such specialized life management and enhancement businesses on the Internet has resulted in extreme segregation, fragmentation, and inefficiencies in the marketplace. As a result, their customers are finding out that it is quite tedious and cumbersome to use the Internet for various life management and enrichment services.
Another shortcoming associated with prior art life management and enhancement services on the Internet is that there is no convenient and efficient means of finding such services. Consumers may spend hours or even days searching for a particular product or service on the Internet. The inventor of the present invention believes that no comprehensive system exists today that allows consumers to find life management and enhancement applications and services from a single web site (i.e., portal) on the Internet.
It is anticipated that in the near future many vehicles or automobiles will be equipped with telematics systems (i.e., wireless and global positioning systems). Currently, telematics services are provided to consumers using telematics service providers and telematics devices. The telematics device can be a hand-held device or one embedded in the vehicle or automobile.
Accordingly, there is a need for methods and systems for providing life management and enhancement applications and services to consumers in an efficient and timesaving manner, while at the same time providing an enjoyable online experience. Further, there is also a need for a customer relationship management method and system allowing businesses to provide customer-centric and “reverse retailing” services to their customers via the Internet.